The Black Demon Club (The Mysterious Underground Men)
After trying to obtain more information about the Black Demon Club, John and Bill come to an agreement that the masked group are working for the Underground. While talking, one of club's lackeys spots the pair, informing Ham Egg. He instructs the man to use a nearby kid to tail them, telling the kid he could join them club if he does. John determines that they should work separately, thinking it would be safer and easier for him to sneak around, while his uncle continues to work on the plans for the rocket train. Bill doesn't want John to be in danger and lose his engineer. John suggests that he send for an engineer from the university, almost immediately after the call, a young girl, Mimi, arrives explaining she will be their engineer, though John and Bill seem apprehensive to the idea. The kid, who was tailing the pair, reports back to the club and is reward and asked to assist again, this time to switch out John's clock for one of theirs. This leads to confusion between which clock is the fake, exploding outside John's window. The hooligan is left unconscious and unscathed, Bill finds a map on him that leads to the club's hideout, which gives John an idea. John disguises himself as the hooligan and sneaks into the hideout, shooting everyone in sight with a sleeping potion. Exploring, he finds the Queen's chambers and confronts her, but is stopped in his tracks, the Queen having used her Fossil Diamond Ring to turn John into stone. Seeing they've been discovered, the Queen and Ham Egg escape, leaving Bill to find the sleeping club members and John as a stone statue. Ham Egg is pleased that they should be getting away easily, having locked Bill and the police locked into their hideout and leaking in poison gas, but he realizes that he has a gun pointed at him, the Queen having betrayed him. She explains that his usefulness is done and she wasn't going to exempt him from the rest of the human race. Ham Egg sees the error of his ways, punches her and attempt to save the men by cranking open the door. Before it can be opened it fully, the Queen turns him into stone. The Queen escapes through a window, using her termite wings to reach the ground safely. She stops the kid that was recruited and orders him to drive her escape car. Bill and the police give chase. Reaching closer and closer toward a cliff, the kid attacks the Queen, stealing her ring and the blueprints, and jumps out just in time before the car flies off the cliff. The kid returns the blueprints to Bill and explains to him that the ring can return people from stone, which Bill quickly uses to save John and Ham Egg. Ham Egg is promptly arrested and apologizes to Bill for what he has done and to allow the law to judge him. Happy to see that he's come back to his senses, Bill and John continue their work on the Rocket Train no. 2 and soon have it ready. Reaching the point where they left off, where the met the underground people, John, Mimi, and Bill find themselves in a subterranean volcano and that it has leaked into the underground civilization, everything and everyone destroyed. The heat becomes unbearable for John and Bill, causing them to faint. Mimi climbs over to the controls and forces herself to endure the heat till they reach the surface of the opposite side of the Earth. Category:The Mysterious Underground Men